


The Kids Aren't Alright

by sydsometimeswrites



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Older Sibling Wilbur Soot, Protective Wilbur Soot, honestly this was written bc i really want wilbur to give tommy a stable adult figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28849455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sydsometimeswrites/pseuds/sydsometimeswrites
Summary: Tommy's still struggling with exile, even after it's all resolved.Here's hoping his brother can finally help him figure out what he really needs to hear.(aka: i really want wilbur to come back and give tommy a hug okay)
Relationships: Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Comments: 9
Kudos: 265





	The Kids Aren't Alright

Tommy had only been back from exile for a little over two weeks. 

It was strange. Part of him was constantly waiting for the ball to drop, for him to mess up or say something and for someone to kick him back out again, even if L’manburg didn’t really exist anymore. And sure he and Tubbo had made up, hell they were roommates now, but he hadn’t told him why he avoided explosions even more than usual, or why he’d frozen when Tubbo had asked to borrow his axe. But he didn’t want him to feel any worse than he did about the exile, with everything he already knew. 

It was also better. If he took a deep breath and told himself he was fine, he could almost pretend it was back before anything had gone wrong, before exile, before Pogtopia, before L’manburg. Hell, even back to before Wilbur had shown up, bringing a revolution hot on his heels. He could pretend his biggest issue was trying to figure out his latest scam or prank. That Dream wasn’t a haunting nightmare no one had seen for days, that Wilbur hadn’t lost it and been dead for months, that Techno and Phil hadn’t turned around and reduced an entire country to a smoking, bedrock crater. 

Tubbo was probably one of the few people on the server who had any sort of faith in him left. It was comforting, and was something he sorely missed during his exile. It had always kind of been him and Tubbo, and as they began to gear up to fight Dream, ending everything once and for all, the two had been spending time making renovations to what was now  _ their _ house. Which was where Tommy had found himself that morning.

\------

The basement was coming along nicely, after he was able to finally get the pillars figured out. It was the first time in a long while he’d managed to build something he was proud of without it immediately getting destroyed. Things were getting a bit better, maybe. He hoped they were at any rate. 

He hadn’t really been back to the crater since...well, he preferred not to think about it. It was still a massive gaping hole all the way down to bedrock, swallowing the landscape like it had swallowed everything Tommy gave to the country. It had swallowed up his childhood and family and friends in one fell swoop. Now it was gone, and all he was left with were the pieces. 

Steps on the ladder down pulled him out of his thoughts, looking up from the chest he had been going through to see Tubbo leaning on the doorway, looking as if he had sprinted there. 

“Did something happen?” Tommy straightened, closing the chest. Tubbo paused, thinking for a moment.

“Just….follow me, okay?” He explained. Tommy frowned, following him out into the tunnel and up to the ladder into the proper parts of his base. Tubbo looked a little nervous, but he had that expression more often than not these days, weeks of betrayal adding a new layer of paranoia to any normal day. Tommy tried to brush it off as he dusted some of the dirt off his hands, looking up.

_ Oh… _

This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.

Surely he was dreaming. It was a dream, or a nightmare. He knew it. Wilbur had been dead for months, ashes in L’manburg’s crater. 

But there he was, standing before Tommy, wearing the same soft yellow sweater that he’d worn before, beanie on his head covering hair with a white stripe cutting through it. That hadn’t been there before, Tommy was sure of it. But he was solid and breathing and his eyes were beginning to sparkle with tears. 

The real question was who was this? General Soot, grand and brash with an army of men at his side? The fallen president, with a manic twinkly in his eyes? Or someone else? Someone from before? Someone from after? 

He must have been standing there for too long because Wilbur was starting to shift awkwardly, as if he wanted to say something, anything, but couldn’t find the right thing to say. Tommy took a deep breath, brushing some hair out of his eyes. 

“Hey Wilbur…” 

  
  
“Tommy….I-” Wilbur sighed, almost mirroring Tommy in the way he ran his hand through his hair. “ _ I’m so sorry, _ ” 

And damn it, forget all of it, that was his  _ brother _ . Not the long gone general or past his prime president. It was the brother who’d raised him, taught him to read, helped him through nightmares. Tommy shook his head, practically launching himself forward into Wilbur, who just barely caught him. He was crying, he knew he was. It didn’t fix things, it didn’t erase months of pain, but it was all he needed right then.    
  
“You’re here….you’re really here.”

“Yeah, I am. And i know this doesn’t fix what i did-”

  
  
“Just shut up and let me hug you,” 

They stood there for what must have been minutes, but it was the safest Tommy had felt in months. He could work things out with Wilbur later. He could scream and cry and get his answers later because all he needed was right here in this moment. He could forget that he was up against an almost-god and nearly everyone on the server. 

  
Eventually they pulled apart, Tommy had left small tear spots on Wilbur sweater and he could feel a damp spot on his shoulder, but he didn’t say anything about it. 

“This isn't...we need to talk. About a lot of things.” Tommy said, glancing at the grass. 

“I know…”

“And i’m not...the same as when you left.”

  
  
“Well i wouldn’t think you’d be. It’s been months.”

“I just...we should talk now.” Tommy wasn't ready. He felt far from ready. But he didn’t know when he’d get another chance, hell, he wasn’t sure if there’d even  _ be _ another chance. Maybe he’d feel better, Wilbur would understand. 

He glanced at Tubbo, who was simply leaning against the wall, idly tying flowers in a loose chain. (It had been a habit he must have picked up while Tommy was in exile, the first thing he did after he moved in was plant wildflowers.) Wilbur nodded and Tommy led him inside, to the back bedroom in some attempt at privacy  if when he started crying. 

It was cramped, not designed for two teenagers in such a small space, but he and Wilbur sat on the side of his bed, Wilbur looking concerned. Tommy leaned against him, trying to get the words to come unstuck. Of all people, Wilbur would listen. 

“Gods, I don’t even know where to start...you’ve missed a lot and I don’t know if it’ll..” If it would hurt Wilbur, give him some kind of mental break. 

“It’s alright, I’ll be alright. You don’t have to leave things out, I’ve made my mistakes, can’t avoid their consequences.” 

Tommy nodded and this time it all came tumbling out. The aftermath of the explosion, the withers, the story of Theseus, Tommy trying his hardest. He got through the rebuilding quickly, tears beginning to fall as he started on telling Wilbur about how awful the presidency was for him and Tubbo. How it had done nothing but pull them apart. (Wilbur had winced when he’d said that, it had been his part of what his past self had wanted, after all.) 

And then came the exile. For the first time, he didn’t hold back. He let everything come out, every single thing Dream had done to him, every time explosions scorched the earth under his feet, every time he had been told to start over. Wilbur pulled him into a tight hug as he got to the tower, so very high above Logstedshire. He felt him relax when he explained that he’d fallen into water.

It should have gotten better there, after he ended up with Techno. Tommy pushed through, explaining what had happened, the person he’d become. (Though he left any mention of Fundy out, it was a sore subject for Wilbur, alive or dead.) Explained how he’d tried to heal, the fight with Tubbo, the way Phil and Techno had teamed with Dream. That they were the reason the country both of them had poured all they had into was now a smoking hole, left abandoned.

And then he was finished. At some point he’d curled up in Wilbur’s arms, like he was six years old again and he’d had a nightmare. Face buried in the soft material of his sweater, Tommy gave a small shrug, as if to say that was that. 

“Tommy…” Wilbur took a breath. “Gods I can’t even believe that anyone had let this happen. I can’t believe  _ I _ let this happen.” 

“It’s not your fault,”

“It is, but it’s also Phil’s, Techno’s, anyone who looked at you and decided that violence was the only way you’d learn anything. It’s Dream’s most of all. That fucking bastard-”   


  
“Wil, it’s not-”

  
  
“I’m serious, if he so much as  _ shows his goddamn face around here _ -”

  
  
“Wil! That’s not going to fix what’s already happened!” Tommy looked up at Wilbur, who had this look of fury on his face that Tommy hadn’t seen since the early days of L’manburg. 

“It won’t but doesn’t mean it won’t stop them from trying anything-” He started moving to get up, but Tommy grabbed his sleeve. 

“Please just...stay? At least for a bit. Tubbo and I haven’t seen you in ages, no one else is going anywhere.” Wilbur’s eyes met his and they were the same warm brown they’d been throughout Tommy’s childhood. 

“Alright, good to know you’re still just as clingy.”

  
  
“You come back from the dead and immediately start being a dickhead?” Tommy rolled his eyes as Wilbur wrapped his arms back around him. He just laughed.

So maybe he wasn’t going to be able to pretend that everything was the same as it was before. Sure Wilbur was back, but who could say what he remembered and what he did not? Who’s to say Dream doesn’t show back up tomorrow? The future was as uncertain as it has always been, but here, wrapped in his brother's arms, Tommy could at least be safe and warm. Feel protected in a way he hadn’t in so long. Things would get better, even if he had to fight, kicking and screaming, for it

**Author's Note:**

> trying my best to manifest something here lol, but first dsmp fic pog! ive been lurking for ages but i finally caved and wrote this
> 
> also featuring a fall out boy song title because i really dont know any other way to name things
> 
> hope you enjoyed!
> 
> edit from 1/20: not to say i manifested a bit,,,,but maybe i manifested a bit


End file.
